Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2183-2803

Article | Open Access

Doing It Write: Representation and Responsibility in Writing Up Participatory Research Involving Young People

Full Text   PDF (free download)
Views: 3540 | Downloads: 1994


Abstract:  This article adopts a reflexive stance as the authors look back on their doctoral research projects; the first author exploring young people’s relationships with community radio, and the second author studying young people’s alcohol consumption practices and experiences, both in the North West of England, UK. The authors discuss the methods of data collection they employed, which enabled young people the opportunity to participate in meaningful ways. However, drawing on snapshots from their PhD theses, the authors question whether decisions made when writing up related to protecting anonymity, (re)presenting speech characteristics, and editing, independently of participants, potentially undid some of the hard work exerted in creating an equitable space for young people’s contributions, resultantly perpetuating the regulation of young people and keeping them ‘in their place’. The authors propose some recommendations for facilitating the inclusion of young people in the writing up of participatory research.

Keywords:  dissemination; inclusion; methods; participatory research; qualitative research; young people

Published:  


DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i3.957


© Catherine Wilkinson, Samantha Wilkinson. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.